Awesome work, Tony and Trolley! You knew how to find the facts behind my intuitive hunch.

Sorry it's taking me a year to come back to this. I don't get notices, I guess, when replies are posted?

I came back because I have a new one for you superslueths, but I'll post in a new thread.

I always have a hard time finding this site. I bookmark it, but then I switch phones and don't seem to keep the bookmark. Doesn't come up very high in Google search results (FYI), but you guys have one of the best sites for phrases I've ever seen!

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Yes. It seems that the concept was around in the mid-19th century. I found a couple:

"On such little hinges of law do the great gates hang..." ("The Trial of Theodore Parker for the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall Against Kidnapping Before the Circuit Court of the United States at Boston, April 3, 1855 With the Defence", Theodore Parker, 1864)